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WASHINGTON – Road conditions have improved in the United States over the past 20 years or so, but not in New Jersey.

New Jersey’s roads ranked last in the nation for traffic congestion in a study released yesterday. And when fatality rates, pavement condition, maintenance and costs were also figured in, the Garden State was also the worst – with New York No. 3 from the bottom.

North Dakota and South Carolina roads rated highest in the study’s overall rankings. The study ranked Montana highways as the deadliest in the nation.

The study, based on data from 1984 through 2005, found that while road conditions have improved in recent years, traffic congestion and highway fatalities have increased slightly.

The state-by-state evaluation of highways was conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and financed by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles.

With the federal highway fund running short of money for major projects, state governments are faced with having to pick up a greater share of the cost of building and maintaining highways.

David Hartgen, the study’s lead author, says the results show that states must prioritize, directing their transportation money to projects specifically designed to reduce congestion.

“Gridlock isn’t going away,” Hartgen said.

The study ranked highway systems in each state according to their cost-effectiveness, which was determined by several factors including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs. Evaluations were done on highways and all state-owned roads.

The study found that traffic fatalities rose by less than 1 percent between 2004 and 2005. Montana had the deadliest roads, with 2.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Massachusetts roads were the safest, with 0.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles.

Congestion rose by a similar amount. According to the study, almost 52 percent of the nation’s urban interstate highways were regularly congested in 2005, the last year included in the evaluation.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said congestion has nearly tripled in metropolitan areas during the past 25 years, despite increases in spending. AP